Is led lighting harmful to plants

A controversial question asked by many is whether LED lightings are harmful to plants. Though we are still hunting for the answers, you can however check the impact of led lighting for plants.

Though LED lights was in the market for a while, it hasn’t been till now that it was implanted in the garden field. Slowly but steadily, LED lighting are trying to gain first position but they have really strong opponents to beat such as T5 fluorescent, HID lights such as MH, HPS lights etc. There are a lot of eyebrow raised when it comes to adopting LED lighting for plants. Though everyone knows that LED has myriad benefits such as optimum energy efficiency, durable life, etc. many garden users want to know what role it plays when it comes to growing plants. How efficient is LED lighting when it comes to growing plants is one of the questions often asked by many gardeners apart from others such as is led lighting harmful/bad to plants etc. Read on to know all about it.

LED lighting for plants – advantages

Long life is one of the qualities that people look for in grow lights as who needs to deal with frequent replacement each and every time. This is one quality that makes LED stand out among other grow lights. With an unbeatable lifespan of 100,000 hours, it can deliver pronuncable yields. All you need is to leave them for around 8-10 hours a day and the lighting will take care of the rest. Since the light emitting diodes come with low wattage, they stay with you for a lifetime before needing a replacement.

Moving with the current generation, the LED lighting in the market comes with around 80-90% of energy efficient quality when compared with other conventional grow lamps in the market. The result is most of the power is converted to light when only less is relieved as other forms of energy for instance, heat. Take the example of incandescent grow lights that deliver only 20% of energy while the rest is an unnecessary waste of energy.

LED lighting for plants do not contains any toxic contents such as mercury that is absolutely threatening for the environment. Some of the LED lighting are made out of eco-friendly products that can be recycled for use even after their lifetime. Did you know that a single LED light can cut down the components that are necessary to manufacture of 25 incandescent grow lights which is quite a remarkable achievement.

Other vital factors such as well built body, resistant to power surges, in built reflective panels, cooling system etc. gives you a good savings on unnecessary ballasts, reflectors for spreading the lumens, external fan to curb the heat respectively. Another benefit of having LED light is its shape. They are quite compact and can fit easily in any grow tent which makes it easier for you to manuever around without banging yourself overhead with hanging equipments.

Temperature is necessary when you are affixing the led lighting in a grow room. Since these small light emitting diodes work real low, they do not heat much and almost 90% of the products these days come with extremely cool but powerful panels that are even cool to touch even while they are working but equally deliver intense lumens to the plants.

LED lighting for plants – disadvantages

This is the inevitable part just like two sides of a coin. You simply can’t ignore them and need these negative aspects to make a better choice for your plants.

For starters, it is a known opinion that led lighting for plants give approx. 40-50 lumens a watt while other grow lights can afford to deliver 80-120.

Chlorophyll bands are necessary as they can help in proper absorption of the necessary color spectrum that can help with the photosynthesis. While led lighting are not harmful to plants, they are however, not effective claims a general consensus. While white LEDs do not do anything important, the blue spectrum is put in at a high level and they usually move away before reaching the red spectrum asked by the cholorophyll.

If you want to take a constant peak at the progress of plant growth, LED lighting may not go very well as the color combo may give out a weird appearance to the plants especially when the lights are on.

Some grow lights even include UV and infrared rays along with their spectrum. Make sure that they come with proper “nm” as too less or too much rays can not only ruin your plants but can also prove detrimental to you and your plants’ health.

While many think that led lighting is cool when it is on, here comes the answer for the misconception. The underlying fact is heat is emitted from the back of the grow light with the help of metal substrate unlike normal grow lights where heat is emitted along way the light moves.

Conclusion

While I have listed both the sides, the argument is still ongoing as to which is the best one for plants. When a group of users shout that LED lighting are the best and many have reaped high yields and are still using led lighting for their plants, other groups revert that LED lighting can be best in many other fields APART from gardening which deepens the mystery further.

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